Month: February 2010

Melody turned 5 on Monday. I like 5 so far minus the part about her coming up with her own schedule for the afternoon. She was moved into the big kid class with kindergarten kids (and three of her friends from her other class). She is almost reading and she writes and types via dictation and is pretty amazing but emotional. It is easy to come up with something she would like to have or to do. Most of the time she is a great big sister and still curious about the world and asks many questions.

When she was swaddled in her baby blanket at the hospital we thought she looked like a waffle cone with vanilla ice cream on top. I just realized she had ice cream in a waffle cone for her birthday too!

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I decided to try and do something horizontal instead of vertical. It bothered me that I haven’t done this. This still needs another leaf and then I have to draw the trees on the bottom portion. I removed a piece of paper where the trees are because it didn’t look right. The colors are also not something I would choose normally and I don’t know if I will leave the pink strips of paper or not. The words say leaves, fall, and something else and it’s pieces of a scrapbook paper. I like finding things that go together and that also help me with naming it when I am done. I am usually not good with naming things.

From the library I got Artist Studios by Lynn Perella and I love the book and looking at people’s spaces. There is a photo I photographed from the book from an artist whose name is not coming to me right now. I like the idea of putting an archway like this in our backyard somewhere and hanging prayer flags, maybe even homemade ones from it.

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The line between dreams and reality for children is sometimes thin. I often find myself looking into a topic more to explain it to Melody. Dreams I thought had a purpose, but in fact they don’t seem to scientifically speaking.

Is it a means of psychic discovery or a way to guide you toward the right path? Is it your fears or goals coming to fruition? Maybe it’s just a bunch of information that your brains needs to dispose of at the end of the day. I don’t think they are pointless but some of them are rather silly.

Dreams happen five or six times a night and can be bizarre or scary or even funny. They do have meaning for the individual in that the subject matter and the meaning behind these dreams are really personalized. If you write down as many dreams as you remember over a period of time it’s easy to see what you are “thinking of” by the dream subjects.

Dr. J. Allan Hobson, a psychiatrist and longtime sleep researcher at Harvard, argues that the main function of rapid-eye-movement sleep, or REM, when most dreaming occurs, is physiological. The brain is warming its circuits, anticipating the sights and sounds and emotions of waking.

There are dreams that are premonitions and psychic in nature. There are dreams where those who have passed on come for a visit and give the dreamer a message. When we are relaxed and in a dream state we are better able to tune into our psychic abilities.

Precognitive dreams, which the dreamer eventually learns to discern from ordinary dreams, are accompanied by feelings and emotions or certain symbols. Some dreams appear to be spontaneously telepathic.

Sigmund Freud observed that “dreams create an environment with conditions favorable to telepathy” and often referred to dream telepathy in his clinical work with patients.

I read in a study that if you have psychic dreams several times in your life you are psychic or a shaman. Not all people have psychic dreams but I have quite a few. I don’t have psychic ability in my waking life for the most part but after I go to sleep. This is sometimes not good but other times I don’t worry about it.

Do you have psychic dreams or remember them?
“You are born to fly, and in dreams you discover the soul has wings”
–Robert Moss, Dreamgates

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The book is a story of the nature and wildlife of the Klamath River, in southern Oregon. Each book is hand stitched, and each page is lovingly filled with pen and ink and watercolors of the animals and plant life of the riverland. The words and nature notes are all exerpts from her own journals. The handwriting is also her’s.

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Sorry it’s been awhile since I posted. I have been tired or feeling blah and the Spring weather today seems to have perked me up a bit. It’s almost 60!

This past weekend I met with an artist agent and freelance curator. He saw some of my work that my friend brought to a first Friday event a few months ago. He rotates work around to different locations and eventually wants to have his own gallery. So Monday I dropped off three paintings to hang at Fusion Bubble Tea in Vancouver. I haven’t been back in to see them but want to in order to have some tea. 🙂 The idea of selling even one thing a month would be awesome but we will have to see. I haven’t sold a thing in a year which discouraged me to the point of giving up for awhile. I was thinking it would be fun to do a commissioned piece for someone and they pick the colors and general size. I don’t have enough money for more canvas so when I finish the next two this week I will be bored.

I didn’t realize until I looked at this photo later that someone was in it! She was walking her dog. 🙂

Normally I don’t start seeds indoors for the garden but I am going to try this year. I am a fan of self-sowing them because I am lazy really. The beds look decent that we have and I am hoping to get a little more soil for them and start the peas soon thanks to a gift card to Lowes from Christmas.

Being outside is always wonderful and fills me up with all kinds of good feelings and inspiration and calm.

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I like the color yellow in a subdued tone. This started out as the painting with the starling image on it from below. I painted over it and added some of the citra solv papers to it. I also added molding paste, layers of paint and then handwriting which was smudged out. I like the way it finally came out. My husband was asking if there is significance in 6 squares and I said no. I had 5 of them and added another later because I think it needed a sixth one I guess.

I think I need to reshoot the photo of this because it was done indoors. I like to take the paintings out on the patio and put them in a chair usually!

This is in my Etsy shop. I didn’t sell anything when I had the showcase spot the other day. I wasn’t expecting to but I did get a lot of views and a lot of hearted items which was nice. 🙂

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When I first started “practicing” witchcraft I used an athame because I thought that was what you were supposed to do. I thought I needed to have all the tools and arrange them and then read the rituals word for word. I realized later in life that I didn’t have to do any of that. I didn’t need tools or special items at all.

When I got back to being more organic in my witchcraft I guess you would say I also changed to using a wand. In my coven I wasn’t the one who used the athame to begin with but I did some changing and didn’t have the interest in using the athame. I think it’s the scariest tool to outsiders as well because it is a dagger or knife and they don’t understand. My sister found my athame and freaked out when I was 16 and she was 12. She went and told my mom, “Amy has a knife in her room!” This makes us laugh years later and she knows it wasn’t an actual knife but a way to direct energy.

The athame is made of steel or metal and usually I avoid wearing a lot of jewelry in the circle anyways because it doesn’t feel natural to me. The athame is supposed to represent fire and direct energy into the circle casting. The wand is to represent air and to me seems like a natural item to use in casting the circle and calling or inviting the presence of the elements.

When I was forming my second circle/coven several years ago the four of us found that we all favor the wand over the athame. None of us have used an athame to cast the circle for years. I like the feeling of the wand in your hand especially if it’s one I made. The end is a crystal and the energy works out just fine. The natural element of the wand is wonderful I think and the use of natural items within the circle is also something I favor.

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I got some seeds the other day and am going to start the basil indoors and peppers this year. I am a fan of direct seeding, however I don’t get enough out of the basil or tomatoes or peppers usually so I am going to make plans now.

Melody is likely to be a florist when she grows up. These are of course fake but she got them for me with Nana at the dollar store awhile ago. I got her a cyclamen plant when she was sick and she wanted to return the favor. You can see they go well with my huge art mess.

I have been posting a bit on my other blog and trying to figure out what to put where. I am thinking I might move everything there I don’t know yet. I seem to go through that all the time and haven’t figured out how to integrate things.

We have gotten our beds ready for spring planting a little bit. I got a propane weed torch for Christmas and have been using it to burn the hell out of the weeds and anything else in my path!

Well Willow is getting into trouble on top of the dining room table. Gotta go!